BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian airline SpiceJet was forced to operate empty flights from Dubai as passengers were not allowed to check in due to unpaid airport fees from the airline, The Hindu newspaper reported on Thursday, at least the second such disruption this month.

This is the latest in a long list of difficulties at SpiceJet, which has struggled to fully resume operations despite multiple fundraising efforts over the past year.

Some of SpiceJet’s lessors went to court to settle outstanding dues and also asked the Indian Aviation Authority to deregister their aircraft. This resulted in the airline’s aircraft remaining grounded, which also negatively impacted its results in the first quarter.

Indian news agency PTI reported on August 2 that some SpiceJet flights in Dubai had been cancelled due to non-payment of fees, with the company citing “operational reasons” for the cancellations.

A senior official from India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation told The Hindu that they are “monitoring SpiceJet.”

SpiceJet and Dubai Airports Co did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Earlier this month, SpiceJet announced that it had reached an agreement with Mumbai Airport over “a minor financial matter,” just hours after the airport warned of temporary disruptions to flight operations in a now-deleted post on social media platform X.

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Sonia Cheema)